Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1887-08-06
DANGEROUS CALLING
Res.on WHY so Many Massachusetts, W0'
men are widows.

NN%NN 49,
men are widows.
The treat number of recent railroad
disasters in New England and the iactsI
that have been made public by the dis-I
cussion of the recently enacted en-
~plovers' liability law in Massachusetts
throw new light on the preponderahce
of women in this State. An inveStlSa-
ZION of all the facts bearing on this
social phenomenon reveals 4 tragedy
which may be told in statistics, who
are these surplus women? Unmarried
women? Soithas been supposed-erro-
ncously.
1t has been assumed that they were
the unmarried-the maidens and SPIN
tiers left" in the struggle for matr'-
monial prizes, and therefore presume
Div not the ''ittest.' But an investl-
CATION made shows that they are
neither Young maidens nor splnsters'
but they were, not long ago. the
''it,eSt,' the brightest of their sex,
who early won the love and support OF
brave Young fellows, and are now
widows. 1t takes very few figures to
tell this fact in the tragedy. The total
excess of females in the State is 1858,
and of this number IS, 004. or more
than 50 per cent, are widows, the total
number of widowed men in the State
being 80, lj4, and of widowed women
81. l5S.
1t is not among women of advanced
wears, OF even among those III mludle
life, that the great excess Is found
More than half are not yet Az, ana
%, 004 are of ages between 20 and 80.
They but tasted of the happiness OF
wifehood and motherhood when they
were made ''superlluous.' A great
number of these women are the widows
of the men whose dreadful deaths by a
thousand forms of mutilation we read
of in our newspapers night and morn
ing-the young wage earners killed in
the dangerous occupations.
The perils of the fisheries are n IA
miliar tale. Since our earliest colonial
days the coast population has derived
its support mainly from the sea. and if
the Down East ministers salary is no
longer paid in cod and mackcrcl by
weight or count it is none the less paid
with cod and mackcrel in another way.
The fisherman sees but little of his
home. His quest takes him $50 to
1000 or more miles from Gloucester.
He enters the little dory, and casting
off from the vessel exposes himself to
the full force of the Atlantic. With
the best of luck his suilcrings are Sc
we're, aud it is often that the worst of
luck ovcrtakcs him. Lost in the fog
he dies in the agonics of starvation and
thirst and Last seen IN the GOrgcs'
is the only-word that gets back to the
desolatc home at Gloucester. From
ninety to 100 lives Il year are lost from
vessels hailing from that single port of
Gloucester. Last year the number was
1lj.
Not 50 concentrated in one locality
and occupation, but enormously greater
in the aggregate, is the loss of life in
the inland industries. The network of
railroads that covers the State is the
great minotaur. The average number
of fatal accidents to railroad employees
during the ten years, 1873 to 1856, was
A. per year. The average number OF
accidents not fatal was 1870, and Il large
proportion of these, it should be re-
mcmbcrcd, result ultimately in pre-
mature dcath.-BoSt0n Cor. Chicago
J0urnHl,